One of my favorite parts of schooling my children is getting a chance to do it all over again. When I was a kid I was pretty good in school. Did not have to try too hard to get okay grades, and probably mildly bored. But since I did not have to try too much, I think I missed out terribly – I think I missed out on much of my education.
It could be that it was presented in a way that was not exciting – that did not inspire me to dig deeper.
This time though, things are different.
It’s my favorite day of the week again! I love that I get to start a new week every 7 days – I know that sounds silly. But, you see, I get bogged down often, by goals, by things I failed to do, by life, and instead of getting more and more bogged down, I get a new start on Monday. At least that is how I feel!
This is Polly – one of our sweet puppies!
We had a fabulous weekend as a family – this was Robert’s 4 day weekend. We get this every 4 weeks and we love these extra days at home together. It was capped off on Sunday with a wonderful visit to see friends and their home. When we pulled up there were chickens running around – and be still my heart! I just love seeing chickens out, doing their thing! They were attacking every bug they could find, and that precious rooster was keeping his girls together and under his watch! SO fun!
This is cheeks – can you tell why we named her that? They are getting so big! I expect eggs soon!
Not to mention the weather here was fabulous!! You could not ask for a better weekend in Texas in January! We enjoyed a few walks this weekend down our road, and in general spent as much time soaking up those rays as possible!! And this week we are expecting snow – TWICE!! Seriously?? Thank goodness for our sweet friends who blessed us with some firewood yesterday too!! How sweet!
So, yes, it is Monday and time for the gratitude journal entry ~
{0357~0370}
0356. visiting friends and playing
0357. free firewood – cut specifically to fit our little stove
0358. borrowed books
0359. getting 3 weeks of school done in 2
0360. starting to get ready for a year of schooling 4 kids instead of 2 and a half
0361. planning to trek to Grand Prairie to help a friend move
0362. a meal of the best beef stew I have had, accompanied by the most wonderful “easy” rolls!!
0363. committing to VBS as the Craft person!! So excited about that!
0364. Dave Ramsey & his system
0365. Getting to the cross road with #364 and deciding to stick with it even though I want to run away and quit!!
0366. hearing a man tell about a trip to far off regions … so excited and so changed! Seeing God work through his there and here is a blessing!
0367. the puzzle table ~ a perpetual puzzle seems to be going with everyone helping – that is so fun!
0368. completing the Star Wars puzzle – the most active participant was PJ – so proud!
0369. The commission system working so well so far! The boys all bought their own lego sets with their money this weekend! This led to hours of quiet for the rest of us!
0370. The start of our Water Buffalo fund-raising. We have a whopping – $34 so far – the kids all chose to put part of their money this past week toward our fund along with some money we had previously saved up “for such a time as this”– and we are excited to watch it grow!
So, now it is off to school these blessings (AKA my children) and get some bread baking! It is going to be a full week – but a good one!
Okay. SO I was not sure at first. I mean, I have recently heard lots of hub-bub about THIS blog. So after hearing time after time how amazing she is I decided to take a peek and check out Ree. Well, I was instantly smitten with her recipes, and her pictures, but not SOLD yet.
I love how The Pioneer Woman shows you step by step how to make her “amazing-looking” meals – and oh my! They look perfect.
So I tried a recipe. I am pretty picky about my recipes – and I try to cook relatively healthy, cutting butter and oil as much as possible anywhere I can. She does not share this goal with her cooking. It is a tad like cooking with Paula Dean – “a little butter is good, but more is better” (my paraphrasing).
Ree aims to cook stick to your ribs meals, every time. I cannot figure out how her figure stays normal, or that of her husband – must be genetics!
As I am trekking along on this journey, there is lots of tweaking – lots of adding to our routine, and lots of dropping of things that are not working.
This week, I have become more aware of my need to be in prayer through my day, not just in the morning during quiet time, or before my feet hit the ground from my bed, or before drifting to sleep each night. I need to have times in my day I am reminded what is vital to my day.
So, since I always have my phone near me (even in the school building in the back) I decided to set an alarm to go off twice a day. Just a simple reminder to stop what I am doing and lift up those in need of prayer (myself most of all), and just offer some thanks. So about 10am and 2pm, an alarm will sound to remind me to pray. Turn my heart to Him, settle my thoughts, settle my day.
